BurmaNet News, November 10, 2010

[Editor]

November 10, 2010 Issue #4081

INSIDE BURMA
DVB: Anger at ‘fraudulent’ vote rages on
Irrawaddy: Opposition candidates press for new election
Reuters: Myanmar's Suu Kyi won't accept conditional release: lawyer
AFP: Defiant Suu Kyi still a threat to Myanmar junta

ON THE BORDER
DVB: Japanese reporter speaks of ‘pigsty’ ordeal
Bangkok Post: Conflict shuts down activity at Mae Sot

HEALTH
DPA: Global Fund returns to Myanmar to fight malaria, WHO says

ASEAN
Bernama (Malaysia): US waiting to see Indonesia's role for Myanmar
democratisation

REGIONAL
Times of India: 'India won't change its policies on Myanmar, Iran'

INTERNATIONAL
Times of India: N Korea supplying nuclear technology to Iran and Myanmar:
Report
Kyodo: Activist urges U.N. to reject Myanmar polls, take 'radical measures'

OPINION / OTHER
Mizzima: NLD to sound out remedy for ugliness of electoral fraud – Shawn
Smith
Reuters: Factbox: Facts about Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi
Indo-Asian News Service: Why India likes a dictator Obama loves to hate –
M.R. Narayan Swamy




____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

November 10, Democratic Voice of Burma
Anger at ‘fraudulent’ vote rages on – Htet Aung Kyaw

The opposition National Democratic Force has claimed 16 seats so far but
accusations of widespread vote rigging continue to dominate Burma’s
post-election political landscape.

The pro-junta Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) has already
claimed victory from Sunday’s polls, the first held in Burma for 20 years,
after counting  began soon after the polls had closed. One party official
said yesterday that it had won 80 percent of the vote.

Dr Myat Nyarna Soe, the NDF’s Rangoon division secretary, said that the
party won four seats in the Nationalities Parliament, eight in the
People’s Parliament and four in the Regions and States Parliament.

He added that candidates from the NDF, the strongest opposition party
running in the elections, appeared to be winning in Mandalay division
constituencies until advance votes were factored in.

The complaint was echoed by the All Mon Region Democracy Party, who
fielded 34 candidates in the polls. Hla Khine, the party’s People’s
Parliament candidate in Moulmein, said that he was defeated because of
advance votes.

He said that he was leading over rival USDP candidate Aye Myint by 40
votes in one “important” ward of Moulmein before advance votes thrust Aye
Myint into the lead. He eventually won by more than 2,500 votes.

“The situation turned upside down when the bag of advance votes arrived,”
Hla Khine said, adding that the party was hoping to file a complaint to
the Election Commission (EC) about irregular vote counting.

The cost of filing a complaint however is inordinate: parties must pay one
million kyat ($US1,000) for each submission; a hefty sum in Burma where
GDP per capita is only around $US220.

“It’s a very long procedure,” said Hla Khine. “After we submit the one
million kyat, the EC will form a panel to [investigate the complaint].

“The panel will then inform the other party [accused] and they will also
have to pay one million kyat. And then we’ll have to go through the legal
procedure which may take three to four years.”

The elections have been roundly condemned by much of the international
community, while many of Burma’s regional neighbours – particular China
and Vietnam – have voiced support for the vote.

The USDP had been widely tipped to sweep the polls after election laws
were unveiled earlier this that rendered any chance of an opposition
victory almost impossible.

Additional reporting by Aye Nai
____________________________________

November 10, Irrawaddy
Opposition candidates press for new election

Pegu — Twenty candidates of three of the parties that contested Burma's
general election have launched a nationwide action calling for a new vote,
on the grounds that Sunday's polling was neither free nor fair. The
candidates stood for election in Pegu Township for the National Unity
Party (NUP), National Democratic Front (NDF) and the Union Democratic
Party (UDP).

____________________________________

November 10, Reuters
Myanmar's Suu Kyi won't accept conditional release: lawyer – Aung Hla Tun

YANGON (Reuters) - Myanmar's democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, will not
accept conditions on her freedom if the military government releases her
this week when her latest period of detention is due to end, her lawyer
said on Wednesday.

The charismatic and influential figurehead of Myanmar's fight for
democracy could still be a potent threat to the ruling military but it
stands to gain diplomatically by freeing her.

Suu Kyi voiced opposition to Myanmar's first election in 20 years, held
last Sunday and easily won, as expected, by a party set up by the
military. She has called on her loyalists to expose electoral fraud, her
lawyer, Nyan Win, said.

U.S. President Barack Obama dismissed the election as stolen while China's
Ministry of Foreign Affairs lauded it as "peaceful and successful",
illustrating strengthening ties between energy-hungry China and its
resource-rich neighbor.

Myanmar's other neighbors and partners in the Association of South East
Asian (ASEAN) had urged it to make the election "fair and inclusive" and
to release Suu Kyi and more than 2,000 other political prisoners before
the vote.

While that did not happen, there is speculation she might be freed from
house arrest on Saturday, when a sentence imposed last year for the
violation of a security law is due to end.

"Aung San Suu Kyi must be released on or before November 13 because it is
the day when the house arrest on her expires," lawyer Nyan Win, who is
also a spokesman for Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD), told
Reuters.

"The release must also be unconditional because she will not accept a
limited release. As we all know, she never accepted limited freedom in the
past," he said.

When released from a six-year stint of house arrest in 1995, Suu Kyi was
not allowed to leave the city of Yangon. That led to confrontations as she
tried to travel to meet supporters.

Authorities have not said if Suu Kyi, daughter of the hero of Myanmar's
campaign for independence from Britain, will be freed or not. She has been
detained for 15 of the past 21 years.

Releasing Suu Kyi, who has backed moves to isolate the regime, carries
risks for the military as it seeks legitimacy for the election and for a
new government that will be set up.

The military is guaranteed a quarter of all seats in the newly elected
assemblies and the winning party is packed with former military men who
gave up their uniforms to stand.

"TAKING CARE OF IT"

Suu Kyi is still believed to have the same mesmerizing influence over the
public that helped her NLD win the last election in 1990 in a landslide, a
result the military ignored.

She could draw big crowds to the gates of her crumbling lakeside home in
Yangon and with a few words could rob the election of any shred of
legitimacy it might have.

Suu Kyi's NLD was officially disbanded for not taking part in the polls
but she had urged her members to watch how the voting went, Nyan Win said.

"She had told NLD leaders to watch over Sunday's elections and expose
malpractice and fraud," he said. "Following her instructions, we are
taking care of it now."

While highly unlikely she would call for street protests, her freedom
could embolden those who might throng to see her.

Releasing Suu Kyi carries risks for the military, but not freeing her
would disappoint Myanmar's ASEAN partners, some of whom are frustrated
with the Western criticism it draws to their region as the bloc strives to
build economic ties.

Freeing her would also lend weight to the arguments of those who say
Western sanctions on Myanmar have failed, and left open opportunities for
investment in the resource-rich country to the likes of China, Thailand
and India.

Many U.S. and European companies are frustrated by the embargoes.

Jim Webb, chairman of a U.S. Senate subcommittee on East Asia and one of
the few Westerners praised by the Myanmar generals, said last month
Washington was split on whether to engage with the regime and warned that
with continued isolation, Myanmar would effectively become "a province of
China". (Writing by Robert Birsel; Editing by Alan Raybould and Miral
Fahmy)

____________________________________

November 10, Agence France Presse
Defiant Suu Kyi still a threat to Myanmar junta

Yangon – A symbol of peaceful resistance in the face of repression, Aung
San Suu Kyi remains a beacon of hope for many in military-ruled Myanmar,
despite the junta's efforts to silence her.

So fearful are the generals of the Nobel Peace Prize winner's popularity
that they have kept the petite and softly-spoken 65-year-old locked up for
most of the past two decades.

While some see her as a figure from the past, no longer so relevant
following the emergence of a new generation of pro-democracy activists,
for many in Myanmar she represents the best chance of a better future.

Although she has said little about her plans for after her release, apart
from a desire to join Twitter, few expect her to abandon her long
struggle.

"The energy is still there. The commitment is still there," said Andrew
Heyn, Britain's ambassador to Myanmar who has met with Suu Kyi last year.

"She's well informed, she's committed, and the message I got when I spoke
to her -- not only by what she said but her body language and everything
about her (was): this is a woman who wants to stay involved."

Suu Kyi swept the National League for Democracy (NLD) party to a landslide
win in a 1990 election, winning over the crowds with her steely resolve,
charisma and eloquent speeches that called for peaceful change.

But the regime never accepted the result and for most of the two decades
since, she has been locked up in jail or under house arrest -- only
enhancing her image at home and abroad as a symbol of democracy and
dignified resistance.

Her party boycotted Sunday's election -- the first in 20 years -- leaving
the opposition bitterly divided.

For now Suu Kyi remains detained at her lakeside residence in Yangon,
largely cut off from the outside world with just two female aides for
company.

When the softly-spoken but indomitable opposition leader was last released
in 2002 she drew huge crowds wherever she went -- a reminder that years of
detention had not dimmed her immense popularity.

"After 22 years since she entered politics, she has become an institution
and so the public will rally around her as long as she's alive," said
Maung Zarni, a Myanmar research fellow at the London School of Economics.

Oxford-educated Suu Kyi entered Myanmar's political arena at a relatively
late stage, after spending much of her life abroad in India and then
Britain, but politics was always in her blood.

The daughter of Myanmar's liberation hero General Aung San, who was
assassinated in 1947, she returned to Yangon in 1988 to nurse her sick
mother, as protests erupted against the military and were brutally
crushed.

She was quick to take on a leading role in the pro-democracy movement,
petitioning the government to prepare for elections and delivering
speeches to hundreds of thousands of people at the city's glittering
Shwedagon Pagoda.

Alarmed by the support she commanded, the generals ordered her first stint
of house arrest in 1989. Her most recent stretch of forced isolation began
in May 2003 after a deadly attack on her convoy by supporters of the
junta.

Her many years in detention have seen her live a spartan existence of
early meditation, spy novels and rare chocolate treats -- said to be her
only "vice" by diplomats who have been in contact with her.

Her struggle for her country has also come at a high personal cost: her
husband, British academic Michael Aris, died in 1999, and in the final
stages of his battle with cancer the junta refused him a visa to see his
wife.

Suu Kyi refused to leave Myanmar to see him, certain she would never have
been allowed to return. She has not seen her two sons for about a decade
and has never met her grandchildren.

Her youngest son Kim Aris, 33, had arrived in Bangkok ahead of the
election, and his mother's possible release.

Many also think the generals will restrict her political activities, aware
she is the only figure who is capable of unifying the opposition.

"To achieve democracy the people should be united. that is very clear. It
is a very plain fact," Suu Kyi told a mass rally at Shwedagon in August
1988. "If there is no unity of purpose we shall be unable to achieve
anything at all."

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

November 10, Democratic Voice of Burma
Japanese reporter speaks of ‘pigsty’ ordeal – Francis Wade

The Japanese journalist arrested in eastern Burma on 7 November and
released two days later has spoken of his ordeal, which included a threat
of a seven-year prison sentence.

Toru Yamaji was released on Tuesday evening from a police station in
Myawaddy, having been arrested two days earlier for sneaking into Burma to
cover the elections. He told his news agency, the Tokyo-based APF, that he
had crossed the Moei river, separating Thailand from Burma, on an inflated
inner-tube of a tyre.

As the 49-year-old photographed voters inside a polling station in
Myawaddy, he was approached by four men, who later identified themselves
as secret police. They spoke to him in English, he said, and ordered him
into a waiting car. He was driven two kilometres to the Myawaddy police
headquarters.

“I was put in a single occupancy room that was like a pigsty, covered in a
cage,” he said. “A political prisoner who was in a cage next to me said,
‘Thank you for working for us’. That made me happy and tearful.” The
prisoner told Yamaji that he had been in detention since 1995, and had
been tortured.

Gunfire then erupted around the police station, as troops from a breakaway
Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) faction made an incursion into the
town.

“Shots were fired many times next to the structure I was in and the roads
close by. I asked the prison guard to open the door but he wouldn’t
listen. It didn’t feel like I was living; it felt very scary.”

Two days later a judge arrived at the police station. “I will pronounce a
five- to seven-year prison sentence on you,” he told Yamaji. “On 21
November you will be transferred to a court of law, and will most probably
be sent down with the sentencing,” the judge finished.

An hour later, however, the judge made another appearance. “There is good
news for you,” he told the reporter, explaining that the “deep friendship”
between the Burmese and Japanese governments meant Yamaji would be
released.

Foreign journalists and observers had been banned from entering Burma
during the elections, which were controversially won by the pro-junta
Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP).

Burma has some of the world’s strictest media laws, and it was there that
Japanese reporter Kenji Nagai, a colleague of Yamaji, was shot dead by a
Burmese soldier as he covered the September 2007 uprising in Rangoon.

____________________________________

November 10, Bangkok Post
Conflict shuts down activity at Mae Sot – Phusadee Arunmas

Nov. 10--Border trade with Burma at the Mae Sot-Myawaddy crossing was
halted completely yesterday as new fighting continued between Burmese
troops and Karen rebels.

A protracted conflict could reduce the value of trade at the key crossing
to between 20 billion and 24 billion baht this year from an earlier
projection of 30 billion, officials said yesterday.

Banpot Kokiatcharoen, chairman the of Tak Chamber of Commerce, said the
Mae Sot-Myawaddy crossing was a significant source for transport of Thai
consumer goods into Burma.

Though trade had been halted completely since the weekend when renewed
fighting coincided with Burma's first election in 20 years, activity in
fact had been limited since July.

Mr Banpot said Burma closed the crossing on July 18, after accusing
Thailand of building an embankment on the Moei River to alter the common
border line.

Losses in revenue for traders on the Thai side have been estimated at 700
million baht per month.

In October last year, he said, trade value was 2.4 billion baht in the
border town, but the figure last month was only 804 million.

He said it was not known if the Burmese military junta would be able to
take full control of Myawaddy from the rebels.

If the town remained shut, he added, border traders would seek other
channels to trade, including Mae Sai in Chiang Rai and Ranong province in
southern Thailand.

However, these two sites are inconvenient and entail high transport costs,
while shipping from Myawaddy to Rangoon is convenient and cheap.

Teerachai Chutimant, chairman of the Kanchanaburi Chamber of Commerce,
said Thailand might lose investment opportunities if the conflict persists
because there are 20 or 30 small, labour-intensive garment and shoe
factories in the border area.

____________________________________
HEALTH

November 10, Deutsche Presse-Agentur
Global Fund returns to Myanmar to fight malaria, WHO says

Bangkok – The Global Fund has agreed to grant 33 million dollars to fight
malaria in Myanmar, after pulling out of the country in 2006 due to
pressure from the US, United Nations officials confirmed Wednesday.

'The grant was signed in the past few days between the Global Fund
Secretariat and the principal recipient (the UN Development Program),'
said Leonard Ortega, a member of the World Health Organization (WHO) team
in Myanmar.

The Global Fund is an international institution that invests in fighting
HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria around the world. It had pulled out of
Myanmar under pressure from the administration of former US president
George Bush.

That administration argued that it was concerned about a lack of access to
affected areas in the country that has been under military dictatorships
since 1962.

'One donor made a strong statement to the principal recipient, the UNDP,
that if you implement the Global Fund in Myanmar we will cull our
contributions to your organization,' Ortega recalled.

'Now because of the change in the US administration, the Global Fund has
said yes (to Myanmar),' he said.

The grant will go toward eradicating malaria in Myanmar, where an
estimated 9,000 people died of the mosquito-borne virus last year.

The Karen State, however, will be excluded from the programme to avoid
further accusations of lack-of-access problems.

The Karen State has been a war zone for the past 62 years. The Karen
ethnic minority is fighting for autonomy in their zone. The most recent
fighting was reported Monday, sending 12,000 refugees into Thailand.

Myanmar's malaria pandemic poses a health crisis not only for the country
itself but for the region as a whole.

The WHO is especially concerned about the rise in drug-resistant strains
of malaria particularly prevalent along the border areas, where it is
impossible to control health programmes because people are constantly
crossing the border.

____________________________________
ASEAN

November 10, Bernama (Malaysia)
US waiting to see Indonesia's role for Myanmar democratisation

Jakarta – The United States is waiting for Indonesia's role as chairman of
the Association of Southeast Asian Nations for 2011 with regard to
democratisation in Myanmar, Indonesia's Antara news agency reported.

At a joint press conference with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono after
a meeting here on Tuesday, visiting US President Barack Obama said one of
the challenges being faced by Asean and also the world was democratisation
in Myanmar.

"One of the challenges being faced by Asean and the world is Myanmar and I
am waiting for Indonesia's role in defending the Myanmar's and their
rights," he said.

Obama said the general elections staged by Myanmar were obviously not free
and unfair.

"We will keep encouraging Burma to reform to democracy and assure the
protection of human rights," he said.

As an initial step towards that he said Myanmar had to release all its
political detainees including democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

With regard to democratisation in Myanmar he said the US was waiting for
Indonesia's role in it and he pledged to return to Indonesia to attend the
East Asia Summit which would be attended by AseaN, China, South Korea,
Japan, the US and Russia.

Susilo meanwhile said Indonesia continued to hope that Myanmar could
achieve its democratisation as had been conveyed by its leader himself.

Besides discussing Myanmar Susilo and Obama also discussed the prospects
of peace in the Middle East especially between Palestine and Israel.

In that regard Susilo said Indonesia's position was clear namely that the
two countries should live side by side peacefully and this should be
supported by the international community.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

November 10, Times of India
'India won't change its policies on Myanmar, Iran' – Sachin Parashar

New Delhi – As Barack Obama called upon India to back US policies on
Myanmar and Iran, top official sources on Tuesday made it amply clear that
India is not looking at modifying its foreign policy in lieu of support
for a permanent UNSC seat. They said that while India is engaging Myanmar
because of strategic and security reasons, it cannot ignore its
civilisational ties with Iran.

"We have security reasons as well as strategic interest in engaging with
Myanmar. We have a close and contiguous relationship with Myanmar. On
Iran, we have already said that we don't want another nuclear power in the
region. However, we share a civilisational relationship with Iran which we
cannot ignore,'' said a source, adding that India is not into any
bargaining game on the two countries.

Without taking China's name, the source said India could not be expected
to play "brain-dead'' when another country north of Myanmar was very
active there. "Myanmar is not a country on the dark side of the moon but a
country on our borders with which we have to deal,'' said the official.

Officials added that India's conduct on Iran has been in keeping with
other members of IAEA and that it will continue its policy of not
supporting sanctions which adversely impact the common people. They
reiterated though that while Iran like any other country has the right to
peaceful nuclear programme, it has to fulfil certain international
commitments.

Obama mentioning Myanmar and Iran in his Parliament speech has led to an
impression that the US wants to keep India on probation till the time UNSC
reforms do take place and India does become a permanent member. Sources,
however, said that Obama's announcement of support for India's bid was
unequivocal.

Top government sources also said that while several DRDO and ISRO
establishments have been effectively taken off the US entity list,
discussions were underway to get the same result in the case of Department
of Atomic Energy (DAE).

Welcoming the US decision to lift the ban on export controls relating to
dual-use items, New Delhi said removal of Indian entities like ISRO, DRDO
and BDL will pave the way for unimpeded flow of high-technology from the
US.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

November 10, Times of India
N Korea supplying nuclear technology to Iran and Myanmar: Report

United Nations – A UN report, which alleges that North Korea may have
supplied nuclear technology to Syria, Iran and Myanmar, may be submitted
before the Security Council today after being blocked by China for the
past six months.

The 75-page report, "reinforces US claims that North Korea has emerged as
a key supplier of banned weapons materials to Washington's greatest
rivals," 'The Washington Post' reported.

The findings of the report indicate, "North Korean involvement in nuclear
ballistic missile related activities in certain other countries, including
Iran, Syria and Myanmar".

The report also said it was investigating "suspicious activity" by a
sanctioned North Korean firm in Burma, as well as reports that Japan had
arrested three individuals last year for "attempting to illegally export a
magnetometer to Myanmar".

The Post, explained that "a magnetometer" has civilian and military uses -
and can be used in a missile guidance system.

China has lifted its hold on the report two days ahead of President Barack
Obama's meeting with China's President Hu Jintao at the G20 meeting in
Seoul.

North Korea has been under UN sanctions since it conducted nuclear tests
in 2006 and 2009.

Myanmar has also been suspected of initiating a nuclear programme but
there is no clear evidence of its existence.

Iran denies that it is trying to build a nuclear programme, and insists
that its uranium enrichment programme is to make medical isotopes to treat
cancer.

____________________________________

November 10, Kyodo News
Activist urges U.N. to reject Myanmar polls, take 'radical measures'

New York – The United Nations should reject the results of Myanmar's
elections, the first held in two decades, and take other "radical
measures" to send a clear message to the junta, activists said Tuesday.

"We are saying the U.N. should stand up firm and say we reject this result
and that should send a strong signal to the current junta," Gum San Nsang,
a representative of the Kachin National Organization, told reporters at a
press conference to discuss the elections at the U.N. headquarters. He was
referring to the expected announcement that Myanmar's pro-junta Union
Solidarity and Development Party will have captured at least 80 percent of
the seats in the national and regional assemblies in elections held
Sunday.

The nationwide poll has been portrayed by Myanmar's military government as
part of a "road map to democracy," but is widely seen in the West as a
political maneuver to cement the junta's grip on power.

"By taking a firm stance, that will increase the leverage power as well of
the United Nations," he added, speaking on behalf of his political
organization, which represents the ethnic group from the northern part of
the country bordering China.

Another activist, Thaung Htun, director of the Burma Fund, also suggested
that other concrete steps be taken by the international body.

First among them would be to have U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon send
his chief of staff, Vijay Nambiar, "immediately" to the region, he said.

There Nambiar should carry out bilateral talks with officials from
neighboring countries, such as India and China, and other key members of
the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to help press Myanmar's
leaders, according to Thaung Htun.

The neighboring and regional countries, he said, "are not yet using their
leverage in terms of diplomatic leverage or economic influence to force
the regime to fully cooperate with the secretary general...to reactivate"
the U.N.'s role in the national reconciliation process.

Other "radical mechanisms," he said, would include having Ban convene a
high level meeting of the so-called Group of Friends of Myanmar at the
foreign minister-level in the region, rather than in New York.

The move could make a difference by "sending a message to the regime there
is the possibility that the regime has to think more to listen to voices
from the region," Thaung Htun said.

Ban in the coming weeks should also "express his opinion very freely" to
the Security Council members, particularly to Russia and China, instead of
"repeating rhetoric" and "pretending that the election is a positive step
forward," he said.

"It is not a positive step, it is creating more problems so we need a
response from the Security Council," he said.

The two activists appeared at the United Nations as part of a panel
sponsored by the United Nations Correspondents Association.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

November 10, Mizzima News
NLD to sound out remedy for ugliness of electoral fraud – Shawn Smith

Bangkok – Despite its boycott of Sunday’s elections, the National League
for Democracy wants to do what it can to alleviate the increased ugliness
“election fraud” adds to Burmese politics, a senior NLD member indicated
yesterday.

NLD central executive committee member and former political prisoner, Win
Tin, 81, told Mizzima that “this kind of vote-rigging happening in
politics has bad consequences for Burma’s politics. If we take the view
that bad politics in turn lead to bad consequences for the people, then we
are also responsible”.

“Although we are boycotting this election, we feel that we are also partly
responsible. Therefore, we will try to remedy the situation and take
appropriate actions,” he said. How? “For the moment, I can’t tell you how.
We still have to decide on that matter.”

Both the NLD and National Democratic Force (NDF) went into the elections
with clear and distinct approaches. In fact, that the NDF exists
separately from the NLD is the result of exactly that distinction: when it
became clear in August of this year that the junta would not allow the NLD
to participate in the elections, and that it would not tolerate a
democratic alternative to a military-guided government, the opposition was
faced with a dilemma.

On the one hand, it could take the high road and refuse to participate in
a clearly unfair, unrepresentative process, and hold to its demands of
fundamental constitutional and administrative change before elections.
This is the route pursued by Aung San Suu Kyi and the NLD as a whole.

On the other hand, some members of the NLD decided that, even with the
flawed character of the elections, the parliament that would result could
still be used by elected pro-democracy members as a route for pursuing
reform from inside of Burma, both politically and geographically. The NLD
members who opposed the boycott strategy left to establish a new party,
the NDF, led by its chairman, Than Nyein, in order to contest the
elections.

Does today’s statement by Win Tin indicate willingness on the part of the
NLD, now that the election is a done deal, to reconsider the possibility
of some level of participation within the new governmental structures?

Interestingly, Win’s statement comes at the same time that the NLD,
recognising the full scale of the junta’s massaging of the election
results, has begun raising the possibility of not accepting the election
results. Khin Maung Swe, an NDF leader, told Reuters that, “we took the
lead at the beginning but the USDP later came up with so-called advance
votes and that changed the results completely, so we lost”.

As a consequence, Khin Maung Swe made the following statement: “We have
told other parties not to sign declarations recognising the results of the
polls without a clear explanation about the overwhelming incidents of
suspicious advance votes and irregularities during the vote-counting.”

Do Khin Maung Swe’s and Win Tin’s statements over the last couple of days
add up to an indirect courting ritual between the two major components of
the presently fractured democratic opposition, an attempt at amicably
settling their current legal separation? After all, they share the same
long-term objectives, differing only over the best means for achieving
those objectives.


>From the perspective of the NDF, the prospect of still going ahead and

taking their seats within the Hluttaws (parliaments) can be used to
leverage the NLD towards the NDF’s “pragmatism”. And for the NLD,
presenting a bit of an apology, an indication of a willingness to be more
pragmatic, could serve to court rapprochement with the NDF without
conceding too much.

The next few days should provide further indications of just what the NLD
– and the NDF – can do to “remedy the situation and take appropriate
actions”.

____________________________________

November 10, Reuters
Factbox: Facts about Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi

Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of Myanmar's fight against military dictatorship,
is scheduled to be released from house arrest on November 13, six days
after a military-backed party won the first election in two decades.

Here are some facts about Suu Kyi, who went from being an housewife in
England to a Nobel peace prize laureate incarcerated for 15 of the last 21
years because of her fight for democracy in the former Burma.

-- Born in Rangoon (now Yangon) in June 1945, she is daughter of General
Aung San, an independence hero assassinated in 1947. Her mother, Khin Kyi,
was also a prominent figure.

-- She studied politics in New Delhi and philosophy, politics and
economics at Britain's Oxford University. In 1972, she married British
academic Michael Aris.

-- Suu Kyi returned to Yangon in April 1988 to take care of her dying
mother at a time of countrywide pro-democracy protests against the army
regime. Keen to continue her father's legacy, she entered politics and
helped set up the National League for Democracy (NLD) party, becoming its
secretary-general and calling for an end to military rule.

-- The junta placed the charismatic and popular Suu Kyi under house arrest
in July 1989 for "endangering the state." The next year, even without her,
the NLD won 392 of 485 parliamentary seats in Myanmar's first election in
almost 30 years. The military refused to relinquish power.

-- Suu Kyi, awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, has been in prison or
under house arrest off and on for 15 years since 1989.

-- Her husband died in Britain in 1999. Suu Kyi declined an offer from the
junta to go to Britain for his funeral, fearing she would not be allowed
back if she left.

-- She was initially freed in 1995, but was not allowed to travel outside
Yangon to meet supporters. A pro-junta gang attacked a convoy carrying Suu
Kyi, top party officials and supporters near Depayin town in 2003. The
junta said four people were killed. Rights groups said as many as 70 were
killed in the ambush. She was detained again soon after.

- She was found guilty on August 11, 2009, of breaking a security law by
allowing American intruder John Yettaw to stay at her lakeside home for
two nights. Critics said the charges were trumped up to stop her from
having any influence over the polls.

-- She has since made several offers to the junta to lobby the
international community to lift a wide range of sanctions on the country,
most of which have been in place for more than two decades. Junta
strongman Than Shwe never responded and the regime described her move as
"insincere" and "dishonest."

-- Suu Kyi's said she "would not dream" of taking part in last Sunday's
election and her NLD boycotted the vote. As a result, the party was
officially dissolved.

- A breakaway NLD faction did contest, but won only a handful of seats.

(Compiled by Bangkok Newsroom; Editing by Robert Birsel and Ron Popeski)

____________________________________


November 10, Indo-Asian News Service
Why India likes a dictator Obama loves to hate – M.R. Narayan Swamy

Insia – US President Barack Obama's impassioned appeal to India to speak
out against the military junta in Myanmar is unlikely to impact New
Delhi's policy. Myanmar is one of the few spots where India does not see
eye to eye with the US - for good reasons.

The US and sections of the West - who end up getting labelled the
'international community' - view Myanmar's entrenched military junta as
usurpers who need to be toppled to make way for Aung San Suu Kyi, the
Delhi-educated pro-democracy leader who has been under arrest for years.

This makes sense - from a democratic point of view. It is not that it is
India's desire that Suu Kyi should rot in prison. But isolating the junta
is only pushing it deeper into China's arms. And this New Delhi does not
like.

The US is located far away from Myanmar. India is not. Myanmar shares a
1,642-km winding and porous border with four northeastern states of India
- Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Mizoram and Manipur. Of these, three have
had insurgency movements or still suffer from it. Similar ethnic groups
inhabit both sides of the India-Myanmar border, making the border areas
vulnerable to instability.

The reality is that Myanmar (earlier Burma) is the only country in India's
immediate neighbourhood which has not played the China card against New
Delhi despite Beijing's growing shadow. And although it had opportunities,
Myanmar did not promote insurgency directed at India. India cannot - and
will not - ignore this.

It is not that India always supported the military rulers. In 1989-90, it
was actively backing the pro-democracy movement. That is when it dawned on
Indian policy makers that China had begun making inroads into Myanmar,
thanks to the West's refusal to engage with the regime.

Yes, India understands there are human rights concerns in Myanmar. But
unlike the West, India does not believe in megaphone diplomacy. Indian
leaders take up with the Myanmar junta issues of democracy and Suu Kyi
when they can. But this is not done to score brownie points.

The issues figured in discussions when Senior General Than Shwe, head of
the military junta, visited India for five days in July this year. Indian
leaders have also clarified this to friendly governments in the Far East,
who understand far better than the West the reality in Myanmar.

Decades of sanctions against Cuba did not topple Fidel Castro. Economic
sanctions against Myanmar are unlikely to succeed either. And India is
aware that Washington will never advocate sanctions against Pakistan
though Islamabad has promoted and promotes the worst of terrorist groups.

Indeed, the West is committing a blunder by trying to isolate the junta.
This has left the field wide open for China to cement its influence in
Myanmar. India is thus the largest country in the democratic world
actively engaged with Myanmar, quietly trying to shape events knowing well
that the junta is deeply entrenched.

At the same time, India plays host to a large pro-democracy population
from Myanmar. Economically, it makes sense for India to use Myanmar to
connect its economically-backward northeast with Southeast Asia for trade
and commerce. With Dhaka dilly-dallying on transit facilities, Myanmar is
India's best bet.

India does not believe that Myanmar is engaged in nuclear proliferation.
There is no clear evidence of this. In any case, while calling on India to
shun Myanmar, Western companies do billions of dollars of business with
the junta over its oil. Strangely, neither New Delhi nor Beijing buys a
drop of oil from Myanmar.

In any case, India doesn't take the high moral ground on political
governance. It sees no reason to topple the military junta. Any
instability in Myanmar that spins out of control will cause huge problems
for India's fragile northeast. India cannot afford this.